Field
This invention relates generally to the field of biomedical imaging, and more specifically to a system for correcting defects in medical images that are caused by a subject's movement during an in vivo (in the living body) magnetic resonance scan.
Description
“Tomographic” imaging techniques generate images of multiple slices of an object. Some commonly used tomographic imaging techniques include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) techniques, which are ideal for assessing the structure, physiology, chemistry and function of the living brain and other organs, in vivo and non-invasively. Because the object of interest is often imaged in many scanning steps in order to build a complete two or three dimensional view, scans are of long duration, usually lasting several minutes. To increase resolution (detail) of a tomographic scan, more slices and more scanning steps must be used, which further increases the duration of a scan. Scans may also be of long duration in order to obtain sufficient signal-to-noise ratio. Magnetic resonance techniques (including tomographic techniques), that are currently known or to be developed in the future (hereinafter collectively referred to as “MR” or “MRI”) can also afford relatively high spatial and temporal resolution, are non-invasive and repeatable, and may be performed in children and infants. However, due to their duration, MR scans can be subject to the problem of patient or object motion.